


Our Bonds are Stronger than Steel

by SmolGooDragon



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Drabble Collection, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Platonic VLD Month 2017, Season/Series 03 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-02
Updated: 2017-10-27
Packaged: 2019-01-08 03:00:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12245763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmolGooDragon/pseuds/SmolGooDragon
Summary: A collection of my drabbles for Platonic VLD Month- hopefully one chapter a day for the rest of October!





	1. Day 1: Garrison Days

**Author's Note:**

> I am definitely going to destroy myself with this, but I need the writing practice, so here we are. I hope you'll enjoy this first chapter, as well as the rest of the fic if you decide to follow me on this wild ride!

**Day 1: Garrison Days**

 

Keith had always been a natural pilot, that much was clear. He had the instincts for it- something even senior-year pilots struggled to master. However, his forte had never been written work, studying, communicating with others (including his instructors)... It was difficult, and his first semester of freshman year at the Garrison was pure hell. He would have failed his freshman year, if it hadn't been for Shiro. He would've had nowhere to go, no home to return to.

 

No reason to continue existing, if he couldn't be a pilot- the one thing that brought him any semblance of happiness.

 

"Pardon me. Keith, right? Do you have a few minutes to spare after class?"

Keith had looked at the (then) student teacher with a confused, wary look. His name was... Takashi, he thought. Someone who had introduced himself alongside the instructor on the first day, and had since taught one or two classes over the last few weeks. He'd seemed nice enough, Keith had supposed. Every girl in class swooned over the man, and he had a gentle, friendly, understanding vibe about him that was hard not to trust. Then... there was something else about him, too. Something that made people respect him, and listen intently whenever he spoke. He seemed wise, strong... caring.

 

So ordinarily, Keith would have brusquely blown this kind of question off; no, he doesn't have a few minutes, he has a few classes immediately after this one, and is busy later tonight. No, he doesn't want to talk.

 

Instead, he had responded with a hesitant "I can spare fifteen minutes."

 

After class, sure enough, the assistant teacher had waited patiently for every other student to file out of the room, as well as the teacher, before sitting Keith down and talking to him. He'd expressed concern about Keith's grades, but complimented him on his piloting skills. The talk about grades made Keith uncomfortable, but something about the man's earnest desire to _help_ _him_ had kept Keith there.

The TA had offered free tutoring and homework help and quickly asked Keith if he was free at seven o'clock that night, to which Keith had responded, bewildered, that yes, he was free.

As Keith had been about to leave, awkwardly thanking the TA, the man had told him to just call him˜Shiro", instead of Takashi.

 

As the months went by, Keith had begun to warm up to Shiro's presence, and genuinely enjoyed their studying meetings and tutoring sessions. Finally he had someone he could call a friend, and his sense of loneliness in the unfamiliar environment of the Garrison was eased.

His grades began to drastically improve, and by his sophomore year, he was infamously known as the Garrison's model student, alongside Shiro- an ace pilot with above-average grades. Shiro still helped Keith out, even though the younger student was beginning to do well enough on his own.

 

When Shiro had become an instructor at a record age at the Garrison, Keith had celebrated with him. It had been Keith's first party (hosted at Shiro's dorm), and it was also the first time he'd ever genuinely laughed out loud and had fun in front of a group of people.

 

At the beginning of his junior year, Shiro had been selected, alongside Samuel and Matthew Holt (whom Keith was familiar with, since Matt had liked to hang out with him and Shiro sometimes), to go on a mission to Kerberos. Keith had been upset, but happy for Shiro.

Shiro had assured Keith that he could handle himself just fine, as long as he kept an organized schedule and completed his homework on time. Had promised to return in time to see Keith's graduation in his senior year.

 

In the middle of the first semester of his senior year, the "Kerberos Mission" had turned into the "Kerberos Tragedy".

 

That was the first time Keith had cried for several days straight.

He had stayed huddled in the corner of the dark bedroom, sobs wracking his body as the news reporter droned on about the tragic deaths of Sam, Matt, and Shiro.

 

His grades plummeted.

His piloting became erratic, reckless. His grief turned into hard, fiery _aggression_. The model student had become the outcast and rebel once more over the course of three weeks. At the end of the month, he was gone.

No one knew where he'd went, and no one could find him, no matter how intensely they searched. Eventually, they'd given up.

 

Keith hadn't given up on Shiro.

He was alive, he just knew it.

 

Every day he struggled to survive out in the desert cabin, but his focus remained on tracking down information on Shiro's whereabouts. Every single day for the next several months, he had obsessively researched, snuck into Garrison facilities, scoured the areas for clues...

 

...Until, one day, he had seen Shiro once again, for the first time since he was sixteen years old.

 

The man's raven-black hair now bore a shock of white, and his clean features had been marred by a scar across the bridge of his nose. His eyes held ghosts within their traumatized depths. His movements had become far more reserved, his range of expression held back by paranoia and uneasiness.

 

But he was still Keith's closest friend. His big brother, Shiro.

 

When he had been reunited with Shiro, Keith had vowed to never let the man go, never again.

 

That promise drives him to move forward, to lead Voltron in Shiro's stead. It drives him to find the black paladin (the only true black paladin, he firmly believes; he's just a temporary substitute), no matter the cost.

 

Shiro had saved his life all those years ago- and Keith is going to try his damndest to return the favor, no matter what.


	2. Home/Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge misses home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My professors are trying to kill me all at the same time, so I combined the prompts for days 2 and 3, aaaand it's a bit of a short chapter ;;; But otherwise, I'm pretty satisfied with this chapter! Hope you enjoy it!  
> (Also does anyone know how to fix the copy-paste glitch that Google Docs seems to have? It's driving me nuts that I have to manually remove all the dang glitch text that pops up where quotation marks, apostrophes, and etc. are, and it takes me much longer to post even short chapters due to how many things I have to fix one at a time :P)

**Day 2/3: Home/Memories**

 

"Home"

NOUN

**homes** (plural noun)

  1. the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household



 

It's such a simple definition, really, one that everyone pretty much ignores, since everyone has their own definition for "home".

 

For Pidge, it's always been a combination of things.

Home is Dad's bear hugs, and the scent of peanut butter cookies baking in the creaky old oven. Home is Matt's video games, shared between the two of them and played well into the night, and her Pokémon card collection that easily rivals her brother's collection (she'll beat him one of these days).

Home is endless, witty banter shared wherever and whenever her family congregates, whether it be at the dinner table, the living room, or wandering throughout the house. Her entire family is a bunch of science geeks, so endless chats on technology, biology, and other various fields of science can be heard being discussed at most hours of the day.

Home is her bedroom, where she can sit in bed and code for fun, snuggled up in her embarrassingly-old Winnie the Pooh bedsheets that she just doesn't have the heart to get rid of. Home is also that weird-shaped bedside lamp that Dad picked up at a sketchy yard sale a few years back. The thing looked like it had lived through a war, with how warped it was and how torn-up the lampshade was, but she loved it regardless. It always seemed to provide the perfect amount of light to work by- not too dark, not too bright.

 

Home was her family, her loving, caring, hilarious, nerdy family. Were they perfect? Of course not, but they were the light of her life, and often a source of respite on her bad days.

 

So when she wakes up to see unfamiliar, teal strips glowing in the dark, faintly illuminating her plain bedsheets that don't feel like any Earth bedsheets she'd ever slept in before, when she doesn't hear the sound of her parents' or her brother's witty banter (which she recognizes that she might possibly never hear again...), when her coding hobby has turned into a weapon against a ten-thousand year old alien empire, a life-saving skill she has to utilize within the span of a few minutes lest the castleship be blown up or she gets shot...

She notices these things a lot. And when she recognizes them all at the same time- those are the times where she wants to huddle up in the corner and cry. Cry and cry, until Matt and Sam Holt come out of hiding, hugging her and brushing away her tears and talking about coding theories- to make everything better. To take her _home_.

 

When she does eventually break down and cry (most often in hiding from the others), the two don't come. She knows, logically, she needs to find and save them before they can hug her and tell her everything is okay.

 

One day, she'll find them both.

One day, she'll walk up the sidewalk with her father and brother in tow, a smile on her face as she knocks on the door and her mother gets to see the three of them for the first time in ages. She dreams of that day, when they'll all be reunited; herself and Matt and Sam "returning from the dead" to tackle hug Colleen Holt and weep tears of joy together.

 

That's what motivates her to keep going, to continue working late into the nights trying to track down her dad and Matt.

The thought of having home once more, with its creaky floors and weird family, and scent of baking desserts, drives her every day, even when the odds are overwhelmingly against her and the other members of Team Voltron.

 

She _will_ find them.

She _will_ take them all home.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Feel free to drop me a kudo and/or a comment if you like what you see so far.  
> Have an excellent day/night, everyone!


	3. (Found) Family/History

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even Allura needs a shoulder to cry on sometimes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heckin late and a short combination of prompt days again :')  
> Anyways where's my good Allura and Coran content at

**Day 4/5: (Found) Family/History**

 

"Princess?" Coran softly calls into the dark room, squinting to try and see Allura.

He sees a silhouette curled up on the bed- a silhouette that stiffens at the sound of his voice before hurriedly shifting to sit up.

"Ah- Coran, hello."

He pauses before sighing. To any outside observer, Allura's voice sounded fairly smooth and calm, but he could practically sense her quivering lower lip and her stifled tears.

Coran makes his way further into her room, sitting beside her on the plush bed.

"What's the matter?" he asks, his tone gentle.

She hesitates, stiffening a bit. "I'm... it's nothing of note, Coran. I'm alright."

He turns to her and gently rests his hand on her shoulder. "We both know that isn't true, Princess. You can tell me what's bothering you, you know."

There's another long moment of silence that seems to stretch on forever, as though Allura is debating whether or not to let her guard down, before she sighs and slowly allows herself to lean against Coran.

"You know me too well."

Coran quietly snorts. "You have your father's tells. I could sense your sadness from a mile away."

Allura huffs, closing her eyes.

Another pause.

"I miss Mother and Father so much."

 

_Ah. There it is._

 

"I miss them as well," he murmurs, pulling Allura in a little closer and giving her shoulder a comforting squeeze. "I'm sorry."

Keeping her eyes closed, Allura buries her face against Coran's shoulder, her eyes stinging once again. "I wake up... and I expect to be back on Altea. But it's gone, and we... we can never go home-" Her breaths hitch, an exhale shuddering from her lips.

Coran's brows furrow into an uncharacteristically somber look, blinking rapidly to prevent his own tears from slipping out.

"I... I know."

Allura grimaces, sniffling quietly. "I shouldn't be complaining. I know how much you miss Altea, and your own family, too..."

Coran sighs, holding her closer. "We both have every right, given the circumstances, to feel upset, Princess. You shouldn't have to feel bad for grieving."

Allura's brows furrow, her eyes opening. "But you always seem to remain so collected about the whole thing. You always seem so chipper, even... even when we discuss past memories of home."

Coran pauses before absentmindedly running his fingers through his mustache with his free hand. After a bit of thinking, he starts to speak again, his tone quiet and sad. "I try to remain upbeat, for your sake and for the sake of the paladins. King Alfor... your father was always someone I could rely on to make the best out of any situation. I want to be that way for you and the others, to be someone you can all rely on, despite the odds being overwhelmingly against us at times. I try my best to distract myself, and it works fairly often, but. I do grieve for the loss of our families and our homes. Our close friends, the little things unique to Altea..." He swallows thickly, staring absently at the wall. "Every single quintant, I sorely miss it all."

Allura doesn't say anything, just clutches Coran's suit in her fist and closes her eyes again.

It takes a long while, but she finally speaks up again. "You can always come to me when you need to grieve, Coran. You needn't be alone."

 

Another pause.

 

"I... Thank you, Allura. It... It means a lot."

"Of course."

 

The two sat there for a long while, simply leaning into each other as the castle's night cycle ticked on by. Eventually, the two Alteans ended up falling asleep on each other, at peace for the first time in a long while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Leave a kudo and/or a comment if you did.~


	4. Day 6: Life Lessons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance learns that some people just don't handle pranks very well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI well this is late  
> Life lesson learned: vomiting and fever slows down my writing process  
> I'm still really sick but I managed to crank out this short, silly thing :') also?? Season 4 comes out in like an hour and 20 minutes, what is life

**Day 6 (Life Lessons)**

 

“eeeEEEEEUUUUHHHH-”

Lance practically skids into the room, his eyes wild with alarm. 

Pidge flinches from where she’s perched on the couch and huddled up with her laptop, glancing back at the blue paladin with a mixture of startlement and irritation. “Geez, who’d you piss off now?”

He looks around frantically before diving to hide behind a potted… plant, Pidge is pretty sure. It’s an odd mix of purple and blue swirls, and has waxy, stubbled “leaves” (if you could call them that). Eh, close enough.

“I tried starting a prank war with Keith.”

Pidge blinks before shaking her head and returning her gaze to her computer. “ _ Tsk. _ What made you think that was a good idea?”

An indignant scoff comes from behind the plant-thing. “Well I didn’t think he’d-  _ ohnohe’scoming _ .”

Lance goes dead silent, and Pidge raises an eyebrow as Keith rushes into the room, bayard drawn, dark eyes gleaming furiously. 

The red paladin shoots her a dangerous look, his teeth gritting-

Oh.

His teeth were a very, VERY fluorescent shade of pink.

It takes all of Pidge’s willpower to not snort and fall under Keith’s wrath.

“Where. Is. He.” Keith snarls.

Without a second of hesitation, the green paladin returns to reading the string of code on her laptop, jabbing her thumb over her shoulder and pointing to the plant-thing. 

Keith growls and storms to the other end of the room, and Pidge can hear a startled yelp as Lance is dragged out from his hiding spot.

“piiiiIIIIIDGE HELPHELPHELP-”

His screams and flailing move into the distance as Keith continues to forcibly drag Lance out of the room and into the hallway.

A quiet snort escapes her as she idly picks up her glass and takes a sip of some weird, unpronounceable drink that kind of tastes like a liquid version of Sprite, strawberries, and mangoes.

 

_ Who knows, maybe Lance will survive to see another day.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lance please don't mess with Keith's toothpaste, it's a bad idea.  
> ANYWAYS leave a kudo and/or a comment if you like what you see so far! (Please gimme a comment I'm a starving writer)


	5. Day 7: Video Games

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It takes a while for Hunk and Pidge to hook up the game system.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another quick chapter because I'm running way behind- and I wanted to do a cute little thing focusing on the friendship between Pidge and Hunk, because they're the most precious science beans in the world.  
> Hope you enjoy!

**Day 7: Video Games**

 

Hunk chews his lip absently as he surveys his work, his brows furrowing slightly.

So far, they’d managed to set up a couple of core processors and a makeshift TV screen for the video game console Lance and Pidge had bought, but even though Hunk and Pidge had been working on the thing for couple days, it just wouldn’t work. 

“C’mooon,” he mumbles, frowning. “What’re we missing…”

A shuffling noise comes from behind him and he blinks, turning his head to see a very tired, disheveled Pidge moving over to him. She has a blanket wrapped around her shoulders, and her hair looks absolutely frightful.

“Mmm… still not working?” She stifles a yawn and moves closer, examining the wires at a distance.

Hunk shakes his head. “Yeahhhh no. Still can’t get it to turn on, even though I’m pretty sure we got everything set up right.”

“We attached a core processor, yeah?”

“Mm-hm.”

“Monitor is all plugged in…”

“Yep.”

The two stand there, frowning as they look over their handiwork. They’re both tired, but it’s frustrating them to no end that this is a puzzle they’ve, so far, been unable to solve.

After a moment of silence, Pidge finally speaks up. “...Hey, we attached the monitor to the power source, right?”

 

A pause.

 

Hunk practically dives for the wiring, letting out a frustrated “ah!”

Pidge does much the same, abandoning her blanket in favor of joining Hunk where he’s crouched by the many wires and the power core, already getting to work.

The two go dead silent as they work together in tandem, moving ridiculously fast as they manage to figure out where the wires should fit in conjunction with the wires already plugged in from the console.

Not too much later, the green and yellow paladins proudly saunter into the dining hall, smug about their victory over the video game system. The others don’t seem to mind (or even notice, in Lance’s case since he’s so thrilled about the system being functional) that Pidge and Hunk look like a trainwreck, their hair completely messed up and the two of them both in ruffled pajamas.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please feel free to shoot me a kudo, comment, or subscription if you like what you see so far! Have a wonderful day.~
> 
> Questions, comments, concerns? Feel like keeping track of my writing process? Wanna hit me up and go nuts over fandoms? Feel free to follow and/or hit me up at my writing Tumblr blog, smolgoodragon!


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